“Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team – no one more important that the other.” – Hoosiers, 1986
EAST SANDWICH – There isn’t any one thing remarkable about the 21-1 Sandwich High School boys’ basketball team: there are many remarkable things about it. They know each other, they feed off each other’s energy, they are well-coached and they possess an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time, almost all of the time.
They’re also quite good.
Sandwich High School junior forward Andrew Galanek played spectacular defense and turned in 14 points to help lead the Blue Knights to a 65-50 Division 2 South Sectional quarterfinals victory over Walpole last night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
They are about as physiologically synergistic a team as the Cape may have seen in some time.
Last night before a capacity crowd of some 2,000-spectators, the Blue Knights opened up a can of lightning on the 7th-seeded Walpole Rebels (16-8) in the Division 2 South Sectional Boys’ Quarterfinals at Sandwich High, defeating the visitors, 65-50.
A trio of arrows from head coach Dennis Green’s quiver of talent fired straight for the Rebels’ heart in the first quarter: Scotty Reels, Andrew Galanek and Joey Downes.
Reels, who finished the night with nine points, was the tone-setter in this torrid affair as Downes missed the opening salvo, Will Bennett tore down the rebound and pumped it back out to the senior co-captain who drilled a game-opening trifecta.
Senior co-captain Hank O’Brien followed that with a vicious blocked shot on Walpole’s return, Walpole got the ball back and Downes snatched it away, feeding Reels on the fly. Reels took it to the hole and got fouled and went 1-2 at the stripe for a quick, 4-0 lead.
Galanek then made his first of four steals on the night and fed Downes on the run, who in turned missed the shot but drew the foul. He nailed both freebies to make it 6-0.
Three minutes into the first quarter, and Walpole finally got on the scoreboard when Walpole senior captain Pat Donovan hit a baseline runner to make it 6-2, but the Blue Knights were just getting started and the flame was kindled by Galanek.
The junior forward, who finished the night with 14 points, eight rebounds and four steals, blocked a Walpole shot, grabbed the rock and dribbled coast to coast for a layup that set the hometown crowd on fire. Reels followed suit when he pulled down a huge rebound on a Walpole miss and went coast-to-coast for his own layup and a 10-3 Sandwich lead.
Yes, Walpole’s Riley Tetreault (14 points) answered the pair of layups with a downtown trey to make it 10-6, but Galanek would answer that with a transition layup to make it 12-6.
Sandwich High’s Joey Downes isn’t just about scoring points – although he did have 29 game-high points last night – he also stuck his nose right in the middle of the entire Walpole team beneath the basket in numerous rebound attempts.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Tetreault replied again with a trey to make it 12-9, Blue Knights.
But Galanek stole the ball once more at the top of the key, fired a lob to Downes who laid it in for a 14-9 lead. Feeling it, Downes followed that play with a downtown three-pointer that made it 17-9.
Galanek then got called for a foul that clearly crept under the lanky junior forward’s skin, only he didn’t respond with the whining and weeping all too often seen on high school courts these days.
Galanek responded to the frustration by stealing Walpole’s ensuing inbounds pass, and firing yet another strike to Downes for a layup to make it 19-9. Galanek finalized the game’s tone when he blocked Walpole’s attempted shot at the buzzer to end the first quarter.
The Rebels came out running and gunning for their postseason lives in the second frame, as evidenced by a Tetreault layup to open the frame and then a pretty three-pointer from Noah Miree and suddenly the Blue Knights were clinging to 19-14 edge.
A Galanek bucket off a nifty Will Bennett no-look feed put it back to 21-14 and Dante Lambros pumped it inside to Hank O’Brien for his first bucket but then the tempo began to ebb for the hosts. A tiny seed of unnecessary doubt crept into some minds in attendance as the second quarter came to a close and Tetreault hit a put-back at the buzzer, but Sandwich went to the halftime locker room with a 25-24 advantage.
The third quarter then belonged solely to Sandwich and, well, the entire second half to be frank. Sandwich rode the leadership and hot hand of Downes in the third and fourth frames as the Blue Knights steamrolled to victory on a 40-26 second half that had teenagers by the truckload dancing in the bleachers and grandfathers and uncles alike rising to their feet.
Sandwich High’s Will Bennett leaps sky high in a shot block attempt last night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
By the time Downes took the ball the length of the court and was gang-tackled by three defenders on a pretty underhanded baseline drive finger roll and it went in, then followed with a free throw for a 14-point Sandwich lead with just over a minute left in the game, the crowd had fully razed the gymnasium roof with its high-pitched decibel level.
Downes finished the game with 29 points, which included an 11-12 performance at the foul line.
The Blue Knights will now face #3 seed Oliver Ames (19-3) in the Division 2 South Sectional Semifinals at a date and time to be announced within the next 24 hours.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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